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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Glen, that was superb, one of my all time favs, which I never get tired of hearing, played masterfully and with real feeling. Thanks for starting off my day with this masterpiece!

My piece this month is Donna Lee, a fast paced bebop tune composed by Charlie Parker (or maybe Miles Davis), based on the chord changes to Indiana, in 1947. It has some unusual melodic leaps that are notorious for their unfingerability. I am playing at a relatively relaxed tempo, but still have trouble here and there. I am playing the piano, but the bass and drum parts are from a backing track.

Wow, you really get those four note group over the changes. That does not seem like an easy piece to play whatsoever and your tempo seems anything but relaxed. In fact it's quite energetic and your phrasing is excellent, very easy to follow. I don't recall if you mentioned it before, but did you ever play a single note instrument like the sax or trumpet? Your call and response is stellar - really cooks.

Glen - Beautiful sound on Moonlight. That piano is just perfect for it. I like to see how low you keep your hands and the economy of movement. It is like a well-oiled machine. I think this is one of the reasons that I dont video myself playing. It is much more like a jalopy with missing wheels and a cracked frame :-)

Ed - Kudos for playing that song! Those lines are so difficult. The thing about playing those long intricate bebop heads is that they have the greatest impact when there are two (or more) instruments playing them at the same time. Then you go, "how are they doing that?". I was hearing a sax player doubling you in my head as you were going and it sounding so cool. I tried once to do the bebop head on "Blues For Alice" with both guitar and piano and then line them up in the mix. Forget it, it was just too complicated. It just really needs to be done live.

Glen, thanks for listending and for your comments. Re the tempo, I think I was playing at 150, because some of those triplets fall apart for me at faster tempos. I think the typical tempo is over 200. Last month I heard three pianists play this together on three pianos; during the countoff, one of them objected that the tempo was too slow for him, so they upped it. I could hardly believe it! To my surprise, they kept it all together in spite of the tempo and the difficult fingering. Re horn playing, no, I have never played anything but piano and organ, but - - I have certainly listened to a lot of horn players and have transcribed a few.

Greener, thanks.

Ken, I tried to record myself playing a bebop tune along with a recording of a horn - it made for a mushy timbre, like a single instrument that can't make up its mind whether it is a piano or a horn. Yuck. But I agree, I love the sound of two horn players having a go at a fast Clifford Brown tune!

I was trying to think of something simple to share and thought of a piece I used to enjoy playing occasionally on solemn Sundays. It is a classical medley of sorts and I do not think much of it is consistent with the original works that the elements were extracted from. Nonetheless, I'm attracted by the beauty of its simplicity though it is intended to be tragically sad.

This is recital season, so I have to come up with my dreaded annual solo arrangement of something. This year I decided to do On A Clear Day by Lane/Lerner. It is considered a really schmaltzy tune (my wife has been enjoying herself making fun of me). But it is deceptively hard to play and arrange because it flows more like a show tune than a jazz number.

Greener, very nice. I recognized all but the very first part, though I don't recall the original source. Bach?

Ken, I have always liked that song, especially the way it kinda gets in your face with the bold #11s. Well played, nice feeling. Your reharmonizations are really perfect, always surprising and interesting without sounding forced or artificial. Is this stuff you learned from Levine? In any case, well done!

Thanks Ed! I don't actually have any of the Levine material. I got hold of a Bill Evans transcription of this song and tried to pull a couple of voicing tidbits from that. More importantly, it included some smart person's analysis of the lines in the transcription. Most of the other reharms are just the tritones and backdoor ii-V things that I've been playing with for a while.

That ending that does a couple of surprise modulations right at the end is from Bill Evans (although it sounds a lot better and more graceful when he does it)

This is a redo of a piece I practiced quite a while ago but never posted, also a way to check improvement in “touch” dynamics.
I can tell there is more fluid dynamics of key touch and hopefully can the listener.
As far the how I recorded, it was direct to pc and piano only 1st , the 2nd version has midi bass fret and strings added .

Thank you, Greener and Ken for your kind words on my take on Beethoven. Like every other piece of music, it has a different sound each time it gets played, depending on...

pianoprimo, I've always enjoyed Sound of Silence, and especially Simon and Garfunkel's album, Sounds of Silence. I actually have that album from the mid-sixties...Great work on it and glad you brought it to the piano bar!

Ken, that's a fine arrangement you created of, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. Barbara Streisand and Robert Goulet come time mind when I think of that tune, but your jazz style and improvisation is not so schmaltzy at all (as your wife thinks...ha!). The voicings you chose are very rich and clear. The key change at 3:30 seals it up very nicely, indeed. Thanks for your music, Ken.

Greener, I very much appreciate your medley of interpretations from classical works. It is very calming and sets a rather upbeat and pensive mood. No question, your intention of making it tragically sad is there, but it's not dark feeling to me. Very well done, Sir!

That's great, kenjazz! Are you joining the september recital with that one? I didn't know this song, but I always love discovering a new schmaltzy song. Well, I am not sure of the meaning of schmaltzy, but I bet I like them most. Your song sounds great to me.

That's great, kenjazz! Are you joining the september recital with that one? I didn't know this song, but I always love discovering a new schmaltzy song. Well, I am not sure of the meaning of schmaltzy, but I bet I like them most. Your song sounds great to me.

Thank you Albunea! I'm not sure that I can crisply define schmaltzy, but if you watch this video by Robert Goulet, this is pretty much the definition :-)

Greener - This sounded much more upbeat than funeral music to me! It seemed to pick up energy as it was going. Thanks for sharing that.

Piano Primo - Sound of Silence is such a great song. The melody just speaks for itself. The more sparse the arrangement, the more haunting the quality. You captured the feel of the song very well. Nice job!

Greener, I very much appreciate your medley of interpretations from classical works. It is very calming and sets a rather upbeat and pensive mood. No question, your intention of making it tragically sad is there, but it's not dark feeling to me.

Yes, I was confused at the use of Sheep May Safely Graze, which is about as far from funeral music as you can get.

Well, in my version the Sheep May Safely Graze, but they are in amongst the Tombstones, while they are grazing. How about that? Perhaps, it is a bit of a stretch, then. I always thought of it this way, but sometimes get off the rails. Just wait till you hear my wedding set

This was a lot of fun to listen to! I'm always intrigued by how different people approach keeping a sense of improv movement going w/o using a walking bass line. What was interesting in your improv was that you had the same rhythmic pattern patern playing in the same register, but the melody was switching both above and below the rhythm register. Were you switching hands or doing a cross-over? Very cool sound.

Nikolas, that was terrific! The combination of relentless pulse (how do you manage to keep your timing so absolutely rock solid?) and those unexpected harmonic changes gave me a feeling as if I'm zipping along at breakneck speed on a train ride over mountain passes, with the rails twisting one way (oh no, we are going off the cliff on the right), then the other (oh no, now we're about to go over the cliff on the left). Very exciting music, to me. I would say this would make excellent movie music, except for the fact that I would be listening to the music instead of watching the movie! Thanks for sharing!